O2 have ruined my credit score !

[Beckyelizabeth]

I am in the process of buying a house and am now having massive issues because of o2 applying bad credit to my name.
The account was opened in error by one of your stores in street, UK. They opened the wrong tariff in June for my phone , and assured me they had cancelled this first account. I therefore went on to open the account with the correct tariff with them and this is the phone I have now. A month later (July 2018) I got charged for 2 phones! At first no one believed me and thought I was lying, and thought I was trying to get away with not paying for a phone!! Eventually after many hours on the phone and live chat, it was agreed that I would be compensated by o2 and to put in an indemnity claim for £34 for the phone cost that I was incorrectly charged.
Just when I thought the nightmare was over, 3 months later I am applying for a mortgage - everything was almost finalised - and now I have had huge trouble due to ‘bad credit’. Turns out, the account that was opened in error was never properly closed and due to the indemnity claim of £34 (which I was told to do by an advisor) was now showing as a debt.
I never received anything from o2 about being in debt to them- probably because this account has been like a needle in a haystack to even find!
After numerous phone calls again, someone has put the account to £0 and closed it. However the matter of taking this £34 ‘late payment’ off of my credit score to get a mortgage has been tricky. I have emailed the credit file referrals team however without explaining over the phone they are never going to understand this complicated story. It is ridiculous that these people can’t be phoned, and I have since been told it will take 10 working days to get a reply , then 30-60 working days for the credit to be taken off my name!!!!
This has ruined my chances of getting on the property ladder as the developer is never going to wait 3 months for me to get a mortgage - If the credit even does get wiped eventually !

I am appalled at the system. I have never had late payments in my life and to find out my credit score is ‘poor’ because of £34 is beyond a joke.
Can any managers on this site please escalate this for me or members give me advice on how to proceed. I am going to go financial Ombudsman Service with my case unless it is resolved in a more timely fashion.

[MI5]

@Martin-O2 can you Or @Marjo help?

[jonsie]

Have you put a notice of correction on your credit file with an explanation of what has happened? Some mortgage lenders will accept that.

[Beckyelizabeth]

I have submitted one through Experian but I think it takes at least a week to get added. I am just so infuriated with o2 for putting it on my file without even notifying me of the ‘late payment ‘ and am desperate to see if anyone knows a faster way to escalate cases like these to their credit file team.

[madasaf1sh]

Bare in mind it can take upto 6 weeks for your credit records to be updated. 

Also one late payment wont have any effect, have o2 issued a default notice against you?  Also bare in mind that the only person that sees the credit score is you, the banks have their own scoring.. ]

I would check your credit reports to see if anything else is causing an issue...

[jonsie]

Only if admin here can help. Check your messages here on the community. Maybe they can look into it for you with a few more details. O2 are well renowned for adding defaults for even a couple of pounds worth no notice whatsoever.

[Beckyelizabeth]

It’s down as a late payment for the last 4 months or so, and have shown my credit report to my broker who agrees it is because of o2 late payment that my score is so poor. But I never received anything from o2 telling them I owed them anything!

[jonsie]

They will claim to have emailed you or sent snail mail, neither of which hardly ever happens according to EVERY post about these defaults.

[Beckyelizabeth]

So far over the phone they have not claimed this. I regularly check my emails and have lived in the same house for years so I hope they don’t try to claim this. They struggle to find this account in my name when I call them anyway. It is so frustrating that I’m likely to lose a house over £34. I hope I can somehow escalate this case higher .

[Martin-O2]

Hey @Beckyelizabeth I can get someone to take a look at this for you. I'll need some details so I'll drop you a private message. 

Thanks for the mention on this one @MI5 and for your advice @jonsie, @madasaf1sh